shell-bark (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Andrew Jackson was called "Old Hickory" because he was tough (consider
his duel with Charles Dickinson, in which he stood still and took
Dickinson's shot, so that he was able to fire an aimed fatal shot back),
and hickory is a tough wood (try and chop it with an axe sometime).

Why wouldn't "shell bark" simply mean "tough"?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 10:27 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: shell-bark
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: shell-bark
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> A discovery prompted during deleting of old mail.  I tried Google
> Books for shellbark + jury + old + hickory, and found the following:
> ---------
> http://tinyurl.com/7z6mure
>
> Letter from S---l, of Tennessee, Knoxville, July 3d, 1858
>
> Jim H--- tells a good yarn about one of our "shell bark lawyers."[1]
> His client was upon two small charges, "frivolous charges," as shell
> bark designated them ...  Old shell inflated and exploded loud enough
...
>
> [1]  "Shell bark" refers either to a species of tree, such as the
> scaly-bark hickory, or to any tree bark that is scaly or flaky.
> Presumably, a "shell bark lawyer," therefore, would be a sly,
> untrustworthy, questionable member of the profession, one who today
> might be called a "shyster."
>
> [An unnumbered footnote says] "This letter appeared in the Nashville
> Union and American, XXIX (July 7, 1858), 2."
> ----------
>
> In "High Times and Hard Times: Sketches and Tales by George
> Washington Harris". Drawings by Mary Alice Babler.  Copyright 1964,
> 1967 by M. Thomas Inge. Printed by ... Kingsport Press, Inc.  [Title
> page not included in preview.]  Page 89.
>
> There is another tale of "old SHELL BARK" at the bottom of page 89,
> continuing onto 90; and two more instances of "shell bark" on pages 6
and 42.
>
> This may be High times and hard times; sketches and tales. Edited,
> with introductory essays, by M. Thomas Inge. Drawings by Mary Alice
> Bahler.  [Nashville] Vanderbilt University Press, 1967.
> ---------
>
> The footnote-writer seems to be puzzled, too.  And I don't follow his
> connection between "scaly and flaky" and "sly, untrustworthy,
> questionable" -- is there one?
>
> But the connection to George Washington Harris, as well as to his
> (Knoxville) and "Old Hickory"s Tennessee, may be useful.  However,
> George's "shell-bark" is 1837, before the 1858 of the above
> letter.  And 1837 is a little early for Harris? (he would have been
> 23).  Wikipedia says "His earliest works were political satires
> published in the Knoxville Argus around 1840, and his earliest
> attributable works were four sporting stories published in the New
> York <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_the_Times>Spirit of the
> Times in 1843."
>
> Joel
>
> At 2/6/2012 09:51 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> >      The Forcible Argument. -- "Gentlemen of the jury," said a
hoosier
> >lawyer, addressing a real shell-bark jury, "I say that ere
magnanimous sun
> >shines in the heavens, though you can't see it, kase it's behind a
cloud;
> >but you know it, though I can't prove it; so my client, who rises
airly and
> >hunts coons like an honest man, has a good case, though he can't
> >prove it.  Now
> >if you believe what I tell you a bout the sun, you are bound on your
bible
> >oaths to believe what I tell you about my client's case, and if you
don't
> >then you call me a liar, and that I'll be squatawa'd if I'll stand it
> >anyhow; so if you don't want to swear false and have no trouble,
you'd
> >better give us our case."
> >
> >      New-York Daily Express, August 11, 1837, p. 2, col. 5
> >
> >
> >"Shell-bark" seems not to be in the OED; I think it is in DARE.
> >"Hoosier" is in the OED from 1826, but note the typo in the
quotation:
> >1826    in *Chicago
>
>Tribune<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/88346?rskey=rFE
lqc&re
> sult=1&isAdvanced=true>
> >* (1949) 2 June 20/3   The Indiana hoosiers that came out last fall
is
> >settled from 2 to 4 milds of us.
> >"squatawa'd" --- ???
>
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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